Urbana Police Review Board Ignores Mandate for Six Years, Elizabeth Hannan Advises Council Take “No Action”

At the May 18^th, 2020 Urbana City Council meeting, Bill Brown finally called for some governmental review of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) after more than a month of complaints from engaged residents. Criticisms of the CPRB have been nearly endless, but Brown focused in on the claim that the board had not issued required reports in over five years.

Seconded by Maryalice Wu, an agenda item was scheduled for the June 1^st City Council meeting to review the issue of CPRB reporting. On May 28^th, Finance and Human Resources Director Elizabeth Hannan authored a CPRB review which advised City Council to take “no action”.

Hannan, who until a few months ago was simply the City Treasurer, did not attempt to explain why the CPRB has not been issuing required reports for over six years, but she indicates that staff are working to generate a report for 2019. Hannah said the CPRB will start issuing quarterly reports from now on.

Hannan also briefly summarizes Taser reviews by the CPRB. By law, the CPRB is required to review every Taser usage, which is defined as any action which includes “unholstering” a Taser. In September the CPRB, under the prodding of Chair Grace Mitchell, voted to stop reviewing all Taser usages, undoing their own ordinance. This is not a legal action which the board is empowered to take, but Hannan describes the action as routine:

“The number of displays reviewed is less than the total because CPRB voted on September 25, 2019 to routinely review only taser discharges and not taser displays.”

In genearl, Hannan’s review lacks detail and appears to be another effort by Urbana City staff to minimize the internal failures of the City and its leadership.